It was really overcast a couple of days ago. For some strange reason, the cloudy, cool weather gave me a huge urge to bake. I gave in and became a mad baking lady. I kicked off the baking session with these easy scones. We treated ourselves to a couple of warm ones that afternoon with butter and jam. I sometimes like to eat them with just butter and sprinkled sugar.

Once the scones came out of the oven, I prepped a peach crumble. Since I am allergic to all fruits with pits and cores, I can only eat canned peaches. First I drained the syrup from the peaches and added shredded coconut and sugar. Then I prepared the crumble, added some coconut to that as well and then into the oven it went at 375F for 30 minutes. If I could, I would add coconut to everything! I almost wanted to skip dinner and go straight to dessert that night!

Last but certainly not least, I baked three loaves of bread. I really love homemade bread, but I haven’t been able to bake for a while because I had been a bit under the weather. Since I am feeling a lot better now, I just had to bake bread. Once I had made up my mind, there was no going back. This bread is really not that hard to make, just a lot of waiting around. Since I was puttering around the kitchen anyway, the timing was perfect. I love the smell of freshly-baked bread wafting through the house.

After I finished all that baking, I felt like Charlie in this picture. By the way, this is the reason why this quilt is still not finished. I partially hand quilted it. Every time I got up for five minutes, he was on it, sleeping. I finally finished the quilting last week and I am feverishly hand sewing the binding now. It is a queen size quilt, so there’s a lot of binding to sew. Currently this is the only quilt I am working on. Since I am not touching anything else until it’s finished, hopefully I will be able to show it here very soon.

It’s not all his fault though, for my not finishing the quilt, I must share part of the blame. Puffy clouds and cool weather have been inviting me to go play outside, and I must heed their call. I have been out and about with my camera a lot lately. This is our first year here in the Napa Valley. My friend Kris and I have been talking about “leaf peeping” and that’s exactly what I did while exploring the area. Fall is like a second spring, only all the leaves turn into blooms. I thought I’d share some of my favourite photos here.

Napa Valley Vineyard

Napa Valley Vineyard

I had no idea that grape leaves change colour too.

Afternoon sunlit leaves

Looks like red blooms – it’s spring in fall

Gorgeous reds

Yellow-softened asphalt

Soft leaves under my feet

Dark, overcast clouds or puffy white clouds, I am happy to be able entertain myself on all occasions!

Kim

Such beautiful colours in the leaves….definitely a huge plus to being in the northern hemisphere, most of the trees are deciduous, and I love watching the colours change! Love the idea of spending time in the kitchen baking, that crumble looked delicious! And freshly baked bread, is there any better smell in the world?!

What pretty pictures. Our leaves are pretty much gone now…forecast is for snow on Sunday. Yay! November is dark and dreary till the snow comes. Snow tires on, woodstove burning merrily…I am ready! Oh, and I can almost smell your bread mmmmm pass the butter and the heel of the loaf if you please *wink*